Various types of computer programs allow a user to share data describing their current state with other users. For instance, a user of an instant messaging (“IM”) client application might manually specify their current state as “bus.” The specified state may then be communicated to other IM users.
A user's state might also be set automatically. For instance, an IM client might automatically update a user's state based on activity or inactivity detected at the user's computer, in another example, a user's calendar might be utilized to automatically set the user's state to “in a meeting” during the time a meeting is scheduled on the user's calendar.
Conventional indicators of a user's current state (“state indicators”) communicate only a very general notion of the current state of a user. For instance, conventional general-purpose state indicators typically include “online”, “busy”, “offline”, “in a meeting”, and other similarly general phrases.
The conventional general-purpose state indicators “busy” and “in a meeting” are helpful to people outside of a meeting. However, these general-purpose state indicators provide little information for invitees to the same meeting. For invitees to the same meeting, the “busy” and “in a meeting” general-purpose state indicators may be unhelpful and even misleading, especially if one of the invitees is not actually at the meeting.
It is with respect to these and other considerations that the disclosure made herein is presented.